Browse Exhibits (2 total)
Poetry, My Name is Dad
Poetry is known for its creative ingenuity, and as an engine of expression. Poems can be written for a myriad of reasons, but they hold a technical level that is more complex, in some respects, to other forms of circulated works: such as novels, short stories or essays. As a tool of everyday writing, poems can represent this definition through non-academic or work-related creation. Poetry is an abstract art that can discern the identity of the individual: the artist. Through poetry, culture and personal identity can be revealed through form and content.
This exhibit wishes to showcase the poems of a single individual: Roshan Ramhit. Roshan Ramhit was born on the island of Trinidad and Tobago. This island is located off the coast of South America in the Caribbean; the island is shaped like a boot. He grew up on the island and spent his youth there. It was only during his university years that he left Trinidad and moved to New York.
His works are written during his college years, and show off his identity to me as a father. As a man of distinct cultural background, his poems are also capable of enlightening on his childhood experiences and the culture he grew up in.
Several themes throughout his poetry are that of loneliness and homesickness. Roshan Ramhit explained, “Yeah, from home to school there was an hour of travel. So it [writing poetry] was to wait the time away. Also moving to a new environment [from Trinidad to New York], leaving my friends behind…, it was lonely. It was to take out frustration, loneliness and whatever else.”
Lists: Organizing Everyday Life
To-do lists, reminders, schedules, and shopping lists help individuals remember tasks to be completed, items to be purchased, upcoming meetings and events, and the order in which these things all need to happen.
As these various examples demonstrate, list-making is not a process that happens once and is then finished. Whether composed in print or digitally, lists are meant to be viewed multiple times, and altered as needed with each viewing. Some writers do this with checkmarks, others by crossing items out. Some items appear in lists multiple times, as tasks from a previous day remain incomplete and need to be added to a later date. Still other lists are adjusted to show progress made on a task, or to approximate how much time or work still remains to be done before the item can be fully "checked off the list."
This exhibit is organized into three categories: schedule lists, task lists, and shopping lists. Though each category serves a distinct purpose, all three categories demonstrate the writers' needs to organize their thoughts and their lives by writing things down.